Sunday, July 20, 2014

This article was originally posted on August 4, 2009. It is re-posted here as part of my coverage of this year's Hugo Awards.

A Crown of SwordsRobert Jordan1996

A Crown of Swords is the seventh volume in The Wheel of Time and it opens with the fallout of the Battle of Dumai’s Wells from the conclusion to Lord of Chaos.
Dumai’s Wells was the rescue of Rand from Elaida’s Aes Sedai and the
first time readers really get to see the Asha’man in action and what
using the One Power against humans in battle can do. Rather than strike
back against the Aes Sedai, Rand keeps his eye on the ball (sort of)
and continues his plan to take out Sammael in Illian. But, because of
the his kidnapping and subsequent torture, Rand believes he must now be
“hard”, harder than ever before. To counteract this, Robert Jordan
introduces the character of Cadsuane, a Green Ajah Aes Sedai who is the
oldest living Aes Sedai and is a legend in her own time. Cadsuane
attaches herself to Rand, despite his rude ill temper and distrust, in
an attempt to teach Rand to be soft again, believing that there is no
way he can get to the Last Battle and win if he is so hard that he cuts
himself off from anyone.

As I understand it, Cadsuane has been a
controversial addition to the cast of characters and generally not a
welcome one (she’s yet another self-important Aes Sedai who doesn’t
explain anything. She’s like Moiraine Squared, only without the chance
to see the personal perspective of Moiraine), but I have generally found
Cadsuane to be an interesting character and a solid addition. Given
the spread out nature of the Aes Sedai, it shouldn’t come as a surprise
that there are some out in the world doing their work that we never see,
and that they come out of the woodwork when it is clear the Dragon has
been Reborn and the world is heading towards Tarmon Gaidon. Cadsuane
works for me.

Meanwhile (because with Robert Jordan there are
always a couple of meanwhiles going on), Egwene is the Amyrlin Seat of
the rebel Aes Sedai in Salidar and with the help of Suian Sanche (the
Stilled former Amyrlin), is trying to build her own power base and not
be a puppet, while also trying to direct the rebels to move against the
White Tower and truly united the Aes Sedai. Egwene

Elayne, Mat,
and Nynaeve search the city of Ebou Dar for the fabled Bowl of Winds, a
ter’angreal able to control the weather (and potentially undo the touch
of the Dark One on the world’s weather). Mat is involved in a strange
sexual relationship with Queen Tylin (strange in that it is presented as
undesired on Mat’s part, but even though we get Mat’s viewpoint there
is still question that Mat really doesn’t want it…which may well be
Robert Jordan’s commentary on gender imbalances and can you “force” a
man? Am I reading too much into this?). The most interesting aspect
about the search for the Bowl of Winds is the discovery of The Kin in
Ebou Dar. The Kin are cast-offs and runaways from the White Tower, a
secret society that gathers and protects women who can channel and could
not make in the Tower or were too old to learn or all sorts of possible
reasons. Now, there is much more to the Kin and two somethings about
them that makes this a very important discovery, but I won’t get into
that because it would be a spoiler (in case one hasn’t read the book /
series and is still choosing to read a review of the seventh volume)

There is plenty to like in A Crown of Swords,
and there are several memorable scenes (the one with Mat and the gholam
in the hallway / staircase is excellent). There are good action
sequences, nice political intrigue (though Rand is beginning to be a
major pain in the ass as a character), and there were some important
developments (the kin, the revelation of the True Power, the Bowl of
Winds, some other stuff), but this continues the trend begun with Lord of Chaos
where Robert Jordan is very much slowing down the plot. There is less
travelling and it feels like fewer days pass. There is more
conversation with people sitting (or standing) around. There is
plotting, but less action. There are plans for the future that do not
develop. Jordan’s pacing slows down compared to the earlier volumes.

In
the end, this is still a volume that satisfies. Looking back at the
series, though, it is easy to see where Robert Jordan began to test the
patience of his audience. With the major characters all spread out so
much and all doing their own things, the novels expanded laterally and
with less forward movement. Even so, Robert Jordan looms large in my
fantasy reading in high school and college and even when the entire
novel doesn’t deliver the goods, there are enough outstanding parts to
each book that the memory remains untainted. This is big and epic
fantasy. While a tight six volume series would have been the new
standard for fantasy, you can do far worse than Robert Jordan and The
Wheel of Time.